Short-range wireless communication capability is becoming more prominent in a wide variety of mobile digital devices, such as cellular phones, personal digital assistants, pagers and other mobile devices. Conventional technologies, such as barcode or other 2-dimensional-code technologies are giving ground to newer technologies, such Radio Frequency Identification (RFID), Bluetooth®, infrared or the like. By equipping mobile terminals with requisite short-range communication readers the devices have the ability to communicate via these short-range communication mediums dependent upon the type of reader/transceiver associated with the mobile device. Devices equipped with such readers are capable of receiving information from transponders, also referred to as tags. As more and more portable digital devices become equipped with short-range wireless communication means, such as RFID and the like, the device's ability to access information and services expands.
As noted above, one example of such short-range communication media is RFID, which uses electromagnetic or electrostatic coupling in the radio frequency portion of the electromagnetic spectrum as the means for communication. The RFID readers, which are included in the mobile terminals, include an antenna and a transceiver that transmit and receive signals to and from the antenna. RF signals, which are being transmitted from the transceiver, activate RFID tags when the terminal comes in contact with or comes within a predetermined proximate range of the tags. Once a tag has been activated, it transmits information back to the reader.
Tags are generally classified as being passive or active. Active tags have an internal power source, as opposed to passive tags that have no local power source and are energized by a time-varying electromagnetic RF wave generated by the reader. In the passive tag scenario when the RF field passes through the antenna coil associated with the tag, a voltage is generated across the coil. This voltage is ultimately used to power the tag, and make possible the tag's return transmission of information to the reader, commonly referred to as backscattering.
As more and more mobile terminal devices become equipped with short-range communication readers, more and more tags are becoming prevalent with each tag possibly being of varying type and containing different content. Variance in tag type and the information contained on the tag makes it difficult for any one specific reader to provide the capability to read all the tag types and tag content. In this regard, when a mobile terminal equipped with a short-range communication reader encounters a particular tag, the reader should be capable of readily determining whether the tag is (a) relevant for the mobile terminal, and if so, (b) what information/services are associated with the tag and (c) the process required to reach or access the information/service associated with the tag.
In addition, the widespread use of tags will mean that an unlimited number of service providers will be deploying tags that offer various different services. Services provided by the tags include access to networks, such as websites, Short Message Servicing (SMS), telephone service and the like. These tags will, in many instances, require initiation of the related service, such as a web browser or the like, to access information ancillary to the tag. However, since the tags are provided by numerous entities, the means by which these services are initiated will vary depending upon the type of the related tag.
Currently, there are some proprietary solutions for RF tag service initiation in mobile terminals. In these instances the mobile terminals are equipped with the necessary means to resolve service discovery issues to certain RF tags. However, these solutions tend to provide service discovery and initiation for only a very small percentage of the overall RF tag environment. Additionally, such systems typically require the mobile terminal user to subscribe to a specified service.
Other solutions have been offered whereby the mobile terminal is linked with a central network server. In these applications, the mobile terminal reads the tag, the tag information is sent to the server, which attempts to decipher the tag information and subsequently sends the “interpreted” tag information back to the mobile terminal. These solutions typically require connection establishment between the mobile terminal and the server each time a tag is read, which leads to unnecessary delay times and network loads. Also, these types of dedicated service discovery and initiation sites are typically implemented on a pay-per-use basis, and thus cost is an overriding issue that limits the mobile terminal users acceptance of such solutions
Therefore a need exists to develop a method, computer program product and/or mobile terminal device that will interpret and process tag content for performing enhanced service discovery routines. The desired method should be capable of providing service discovery regardless of the type of tag encountered, the information provided by the tag or the format of the information on the tag. As such, the desired method, computer program product and/or mobile terminal should be capable of providing service discovery to any and all tags that are encountered by the mobile device. The desired methods, products and mobile terminals should provide efficient discovery that limits unnecessary connection to external servers.